Dr. Una May:

I will add a little about the local authorities. We are altogether grateful for the support of the local authorities. The Sport Ireland model for local sports partnerships involves only part-funding by Sport Ireland. The partnerships are part-funded locally as well. Some 74% of the funding for the local sports partnerships comes from matched funding from local authorities. We have good support in that regard. We have hit on an important point in respect of blueways, greenways and outdoor recreation grants. One of the keys to success in this area is to try to develop a shift in culture such that all our partners in this area are working together. That includes all our partners in the development of outdoor recreation areas. Tourists benefit and the local community benefits from an economic point of view. The idea is that the facilities are available for the local community to avail of.

The Fit Town initiative is an innovative project that was run in Galway. We are particularly supportive of such innovations through the sports partnerships. We look to evaluate these initiatives each time to consider whether they might be appropriate for national roll-out. We have evaluated the Fit town project. There were small challenges in terms of trying to get the bigger towns to buy into it and so on. We took the view that the community sports hub is the real core. The idea is to get a community driven to improve its entire approach to sports and physical activity. That was the purpose of the Fit Town initiative. It was about identifying opportunities and growing possibilities and opportunities around all manner of difficult initiatives and programmes. This included weigh-ins and get-fit programmes, including from couch to 5 km training and so on. All these initiatives link in with the community sports hub model. The model of the community sports hub is perhaps a little smaller but we have identified it as the most accessible way to achieve success.